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2023 Saint Joseph Rouge “Les Ribaudes”
Lionel Faury
When you first meet Lionel Faury, it’s easy to mistake him for a gentle giant. At 6’5”, with a linebacker’s frame, he is soft-spoken, humble, and good-humored. Beneath Lionel’s modesty and affability, however, lies an intensity he brings to the job—and sport—he loves. He has won ten Joutes Nautiques, the French championship of water jousting (Google it!). Lionel is equally, if not more, successful in his day job as one of the northern Rhône’s great vignerons. What links the two? “Passion,” he says.
Lionel represents the third generation of his family to grow grapes and make wine around Chavanay, south of Lyon. After the Second World War, his grandfather planted vines and orchards, to make wine and sell fresh fruit. When Lionel’s father Philippe took over, he replaced the fruit trees with more vines and dedicated the entire family business to wine production, crafting top-notch northern Rhône reds and whites.
Today, Lionel runs the domaine, and continues to take it to soaring heights. Preserving freshness and acidity in the face of warmer vintages is one of his primary goals, and he achieves this masterfully by keeping more leaves on the vines—thereby providing more shade to the grapes—as well as pursuing shorter macerations and more whole-cluster fermentation than the domaine used to. He’s also thinking about how to retain more moisture and less heat in his soils.
It helps that his northern corner of the appellation is known for its bright, fragrant, mineral, and elegant Syrahs, underscoring the alignment of terroir with Lionel’s years-long quest for finesse. Showcasing notes of black pepper, tart fruit, spring flowers, and a touch of brine, this is old-school Saint-Joseph at its finest.
—Tom Wolf
Wine Type: | red |
Vintage: | 2023 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Syrah |
Appellation: | Saint-Joseph |
Country: | France |
Region: | Northern Rhône |
Producer: | Lionel Faury |
Winemaker: | Lionel Faury |
Vineyard: | Planted between 1976 and 2007, 6.4 ha |
Soil: | Granite |
Aging: | Aged for 12 months in foudres (24 – 35 hl), demi-muids (600-L), barrels (228-L); only 10% new oak is used in the rotation of barrels |
Farming: | Lutte Raisonnée |
Alcohol: | 13% |
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About The Producer
Lionel Faury
Along the steep, narrow valley that traces the northern Rhône, the appellations of Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu and Saint-Joseph take their place among the great wines of France, and Domaine Faury is one of the region’s most artisanal producers. When Philippe Faury took over the domaine in 1979, the family was selling wine, peaches and cherries, and the bulk of their clientele was local. Over the years, Philippe increased their holdings to over 11 hectares and began to sell internationally. He shared his savoir faire with his son, Lionel. Since 2006, Lionel has taken over the reins, though father and son still work side by side. Every method they use encourages the grape towards greatness with the ultimate respect for its fragility.
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Kermit once said...

Kermit once said...
For the wines that I buy I insist that the winemaker leave them whole, intact. I go into the cellars now and select specific barrels or cuvées, and I request that they be bottled without stripping them with filters or other devices. This means that many of our wines will arrive with a smudge of sediment and will throw a more important deposit as time goes by, It also means the wine will taste better.